Maintaining a website for your business is important for so many reasons. It needs to be more than a way for clients to find out your business location or telephone number. With more and more business conducted online, it’s critical to not only build an online website but to gain traction from a growing number of visitors. There are several ways to grow your website and to generate traction, but how can you tell if the changes you’re making are working?

It doesn’t matter if you’re using WordPress or another website building platform, here are a handful of ways you can tell if your website is gaining traction:

Visitors

This is the most basic bit of analytical data you can use to determine if your website is gaining traction. Now, visitor numbers don’t tell you much. Yes, it will indicate if more people are arriving on your website, but when it comes to maintaining a business website, there are more important analytical numbers to monitor.

With that said, you naturally want more visitors, because it means you’re doing something right. Even without diving deep into Google Analytics and other analytical measurement tools, you can see the exact number of visitors, where they come from, what devices they’re using, and other bits of data quickly and easily.

Bounce Rate

Experiencing an increase in visitors to your website is nice, but it doesn’t paint a full picture. If people are arriving on your website and immediately leaving, it isn’t doing your business much good. It may be costing you money. If you’re paying for online advertisements, you need to know if the people who click on your ads are, at the very least, checking out what you have to offer. If instead, they are simply clicking on your ad, then clicking the “back” button and returning to the search engine, your business isn’t gaining anything other than an increased visitor count that’s costing you money.

A better way to determine if your website is gaining traction is to check out the bounce rate. Your website bounce rate indicates whether someone is arriving on your website and then visiting a secondary page, or if they are simply “bouncing” back to the website that sent them to you. As you focus on getting traction with your website, you’ll want to monitor your bounce rate. If people are spending more time on your website and visiting more pages, it means they like what they see. And the longer someone stays around, the greater the chances are of them making a purchase.

Sales Numbers

Have your sales numbers increased since you started focusing on your website and gaining traction? Naturally, everything comes down to sales with a business. The ultimate goal is to increase sales and boost your return on investment.

So, if you have started to see a boost in Internet sales, it means you’re gaining traction. Realistically, no other number or a bit of analytical data matters if your sales are going up.

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate is a more in-depth analysis of your sales numbers. Seeing your sales numbers grow is always a good thing, and, at the same time, you’ll want to see your conversion rate increase as well. A growing conversion rate means more people are buying products from you upon visiting your website. Having a strong conversion rate is important since means people are finding what they were looking for on your website. If people are directed to your website via a pay-per-click advertisement or through a search engine and they aren’t buying anything (or, at the very least, leaving an email address for you to build your email list with) it means they are not finding what they want on your site.

Should this happen, you’ll want to focus on your keywords. Are you using accurate keywords that demonstrate what people will find on your website? There’s no reason to use keywords that generate traffic but are not authentic representations of what you offer on your site. A boost in visitor traffic is nothing more than an ego boost if it doesn’t result in a higher conversion rate or an increase in sales. So, when attempting to determine if your website is gaining traction, look to the conversion rates.

Traffic Sources

This is directly connected to the overall number of visitors your website is generating. You’ll want to monitor where people are coming from. A direct visitor is someone who types in your URL into their Internet browser. If you have seen an increase in direct traffic it means more people are heading right to your website. Perhaps they have subscribed to your blog or they are repeat customers, but whoever they are, a direct visitor is someone more likely to purchase a product or service from you because they have already been to your website in the past.

A search visitor is someone who reaches your website via a search engine. This is an important bit of analytical data you’ll want to keep in mind. If you’re seeing an increase in search visitors, it means your website ranking on search engines is climbing. And if your search engine numbers are improving, it means you’re doing something right and that you’re gaining traction. It also means you are improving your search engine optimization for the website. There are several ways you can go about doing this, but whatever you’re doing, when you see a boost in search visitors, it’s a good thing.

Lastly, there are referral visitors. These are individuals who are being directed to you through a third party website. Referrals are great as they will help boost your search engine optimization. When more website refers to you, it means you’re seen as a beneficial website that offers helpful information. Google likes this and will rank your website higher because of it. These visitors may not end up buying anything, but it does indicate the referring website sees you as a beneficial company.

Build Your Internet Empire Today

Building a strong Internet presence is more important now than ever before. With the current state of business affairs, companies are now reliant on online sales over physical location sales. Customers are also looking for ways to make purchases while remaining at home. While the modern business has changed in 2020 due to the global pandemic, these changes will likely not go away any time soon. Customers who traditionally purchased goods in person are now discovering the benefits of staying at home and shopping online. This means if you’ve relied on mostly walk-in purchases in the past, you need to begin developing your online presence.

If you’re struggling to do this or if you want to discover new ways to take your WordPress designs and Internet exposure to new heights, the team here at Simplemachine is available to help. No matter the industry or goods you sell, when it comes to building a strong, reliable online presence, Simplemachine is the answer. Best of all, the team of experts is just a phone call away, so act today.